A number of apps for Android- and Apple-products offer different means of tracking your phone when lost, misplaced or stolen. Do those apps have secure enough systems to prevent someone from activating this function without your knowledge or consent, and following your movements? It seems a lot of apps focus on a certain purpose without acknowledging the vulnerabilities the represent in your phones system.
Great point! I wonder about this too.
Hi, Ailo. I wasn't referring to marketers in particular. People with malicious intent could also use "backdoors" to abuse this. Dagbladet covered a similar problem relating to unsecured surveillance cameras in their series Null_CTRL. It's bad enough if the corporations themselves abuse this for commercial purposes, but what about unknown third parties?
Insecure devices is also a rapidly expanding problem with the internet of things, and accountability in the case of breaches or vulnerabilities is of utmost importance. It is also problematic that most consumers have no way of testing or knowing that they may be rendered vulnerable when using certain digital services.
Location data is quite valuable for marketers, and Forbrukerrådet have already uncovered that some apps track users without consent even when the apps are inactive. https://www.forbrukerradet.no/side/runkeeper-tracks-users-when-the-app-is-not-in-use/
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